Steadicam Flyer review

[Terry Thompson]

Thanks Charles for the great review! Very detailed and nice close-ups of the rig. I learned a lot.

I was just wondering what you are doing in Sweden? Is it your home or just a temporary home?

Tery

[Charles King]

thanks Terry. I'm working in the steel industry as my day job as my real passion is stabilizers and making movies and editing, which by the way I havn't done any for a couple of years due to me writing my books and working on my stabilizer. I had to turn down jobs that require me to use my stabilizer. You can say that my day job pays for my real passion.

Now, my stabilizer is almost done, I'll be trying to get back on track. I have a back issue which is limiting me to smaller cameras but it's all fun. I'm trying to finish up my fourth book as soon as my carbon sled, new gimbal and dual arm are done.

BTW, I'll post more up close pics of the flyer on HBS as soon as I finish up a write up about the mechanics of it.

[Charles King]

<<<-- Originally posted by Mikko Wilson : Great review charles!

A couple of notes that i picked up...

First off you mentioned the "Manfrotto" mounts on the bottom of the sled.. is that a typo? (shoudl be Anton Bauer Mounts...?)

The flyer arm is iso elastic.. and no arm will ever stay where it is put unless it has friction to hold it there (which you said is bad ;-) ) A heavier rig woudl really help.. Why it's only 1/3rd up is all part of the trick.
the bigger arms use 3 springs, because of the spring to lifting ration shoudl be one 3rd.. but instead of using 3 springs to go across the whole diaganol, just use one spring and only go up a 3rd of the way! Aha!
(The Provid arm that uses only one spring has a cam in the connection to the cable to reduce the effiency by one 3rd to get the iso elasticy - which also adds oodles of friction. Ugh.

And yeah, the side ot side adjustment is difficult in flight.. but that's becuase with the rig in flight it is purtting preasure on the threads which makes it nearly impossible to adjust (unless you get the rig perpendicular to the adjustment plane) - which is why you could do it when you took the wight of the rig. Even on big rigs you normally need to dock to change the side to side trim. - But luckily that adjustment is 99% the same for most people (because we all stand straight in the side to side direction).

Great review though! thanks!

- Mikko Wilson -->>>

sorry to answer this late. Yes the manfrotto is a typo. Sorry guys. My bad.

[Leigh Wanstead]

Hi Charles King,

Any chance to see your promoised video with flyer?

TIA
Leigh

[Charles King]

<<<-- Originally posted by Leigh Wanstead : Hi Charles King,

Any chance to see your promoised video with flyer?

TIA
Leigh -->>>

I'm working on it.

[Leigh Wanstead]

<<<-- Originally posted by Charles King : <<<-- Originally posted by Leigh Wanstead : Hi Charles King,

Any chance to see your promoised video with flyer?

TIA
Leigh -->>>

I'm working on it. -->>>

I look forward to it.

[Lars Gustav]

Nice job on the review Charles. Can't wait for the video. almost done yet? You said you had more upclose pics of the flyer. Is there any chance seeing them? Pretty please ;)

BTW, some time ago you had mentioned selling your system. Are you still interested?

[Cosmin Rotaru]

Hi Charles K.

I have to say something about your draw on the Flyer arm pic! :)
I hera you say "of course!" :)

Isn't there a hinge on the.. just look at this pic:
http://w1.226.telia.com/~u22607422/FlyerArmTriangle.jpg
If so, the triangle would be the green line, which is more like the PRO arm, in my understanding...

Please confirm this - it is very importnat to me! (you know why!)

[Charles King]

You are quite correct Cosmin. My bad. I did not take into account. Stupid me. Thank you for pointing that out.


Hi Lars. Thanks for the kind comment. I know everyone is eager. I just been having problems with my hard drive as everything is on it and has totally crashed for me. The drive needs to be changed but before that my computer techcian is trying to see if he can save any info or all from the drive before scraping it.

So that means I'll have to do all the work again :(

So what I'll do is just zip up the close up pics that I have of the steadicam flyer and I'll put them up on HBS as they are for all to download they they want. Sounds good?

I had thought about it and probably will. Remember this is my older arm not the vest. That I'm keeping for the socket block and my new arm and sled. Anyone interested ?

[Cosmin Rotaru]

Thanks Charles. We're all learning, and you're very helpful, as always! :)

[Simon Wilks]

Great review Charles. Can't wait for those pictures. Will it be soon.

[Steve D. Taylor]

I'm working on a project to be shot in the fall and knowing I will need lots of practice am looking at these things now.

I am not looking to be a professonal steadicam operator, and I don't want to spend very much money. But I do need to get a flying cam feel in several scenes of this project. I do not want to hire a pro steadicam operator for several reasons, not the least of which is I live hundreds of miles from any city and I want to rehearse the actors with this thing for about 4 months (any pro operator wanna live in the sticks for 4 months for free? Probably not).

So, I gotta buy one of these things and the V-8, or maybe Magiqcam seem to be be the best built and cheapest. I don't care about comfort or anything like that...I just want it to be able to give me some nice smooth tracking shots while walking and running and other stuff a dolly wouldn't work for becaue of tight quarters and other considerations.

So would it really be worth the 6 grand for one of these "flyers" or could I get away with 2 grand for one of the other ones?

Thanks for the help,

Steve.

[Charles Papert]

Steve:

Kudos on realizing you need plenty of lead time to practice and get comfortable with the system before your shoot. Six months of occasional practice is by no means excessive, it's probably the least you would need to get the basics down solidly.

The Flyer is definitely a higher-performance system than any other currently available, mostly due to the sophistication of the arm. Being a relatively new product with the most recognized name in the industry, it will likely retain good value for resale should you opt for that route.

The comfort issue is probably worth addressing in the following regard; think of buying a cheap pair of sneakers that are fine for knocking around town, then wearing them for a 15 mile road race. At a certain point, that slight compromise in comfort might turn into a nagging annoyance that could ultimately affect your performance under the heightened circumstances. It's the same with the stabilizers in question; under the intensity of shooting, particularly as a new operator, you will likely be pushed right to the edge of your stamina and the system that is best fitted to your body will let you shoot longer and BETTER than one you may be fighting. This is because Steadicam is not about brute force but about delicate subtlety, and when your back is screaming at you on the 12th take and your right hand is going white knuckle from having to keep the rig from flying away from you, the poor left hand that is trying to deliver the subtlety is likely to be compromised by all the fuss going on around it. The two axis arm adjustment found on the Flyer (vs one axis for the Magiqcam, and (I believe, Casey please correct me if I am wrong) none on the V8 makes a great difference.

This observation is based on seeing many "newbie" operators working with a variety of different level rigs over the years, by the way. I'm not a shill for individual companies, but I do feel that the Flyer represents a quantum step forward in DV-scaled stabilizer technology.

However, if the $4K difference is a dealbreaker, you will do quite well with either of the less expensive brands. The lower end Glidecam line is currently being revamped but based on the current systems, I would say that the Magiqcam offers more flexibility for the $.

[Steve D. Taylor]

Charles, thanks for the quick reply. I'm honored to hear from you, as I've read your many posts here and other forums and watched your demo reel.

Point well taken on the comfort deal, I only bring it up because I'd rather suffer a bit and get a good shot than the other way around.

I know the V-8 is replaced with a new model that combines the glidecam 2000 and 4000 w/a vested system, but I've seen the V-8 come up on ebay a few times, so...

I was originally going to get a Magiqcam (they make a 2 arm one which you indicated is a better thing than the 1 arm one), but when I was reading posts on the Steadicam forum, everyone who was a pro and making the kind of shots I wanted to make said almost anything w/out the Steadicam name was a toy. So I was re-thinking things until I saw this post with the photos and review and the conclusion that it is a good investment if you wanted to do this as a pro, which I do not. So if I can get the shots I want with lots of practice from a system that is 4 grand less, that makes sense. If I just can't do it because the hardware sucks, I'll bite the bullet and get the one for 6 grand. My last feature made about that much in sales, so it pretty much eats all the profit I wanted to spend...and would be nice to actually be able to pay the actors this time.

Thanks again, and I love your work.

Steve.

[Charles King]

Simon and others. As promise more pics of the Steadicam flyer. since my computer crashed I lost most of my pics and clips but I put together some pics I had left. It is the raw thing so some are slightly darker than others but they are still easily viewed. Hope you enjoy them: Steadicam Flyer Pics

Still working on the video portion. It's taking some time because I'm a little busy with trying to straighten out my pc. So just hany in tere. While viewing some of the footage I learned there were a lot of parts missing like actual pov. but no problwm there are a lot of footage showing the arm performance. Maybe too much but I think you guys will enjoy seeing the arm actually perform, which is a joy just watching it than operating it ( almost :) )